HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes_GTAB_11.10.2017Minutes of the Meeting of the
Georgetown Transportation Advisory Board and the
Governing Body of the City of Georgetown, Texas
November 10 2017
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Board Members Present: Ron Bindas - Vice Chair, Troy Hellmann, John Hesser, Sheila Mills,
Mark Allen, Doug Noble
Board Members Absent: Steve Johnston - Chair, Donna Courtney - Secretary, John Marler
Staff Present: Jim Briggs, Mike Babin, Wes Wright, Russ Volk, Ed Polasek, Octavio Garza, Paul
Diaz, Travis Baird, Dan Southard, Laura Wilkins
Others Present: Carl Norris, Dennis Hegebarth, John Milford, Wendy Dew, Avis O'Connell,
James O'Connell, Christine Graf, Terry Reed (all of the Airport Concerned Citizens (ACC);
Larry Wood - AeroJet; Trae Sutton and Brenton Burney - KPA Engineering;
Regular Session
A. Call to Order: Mr. Ron Bindas, Vice -Chair, chaired the Board Meeting in the absence of
Steve Johnston - Board Chair. Bindas called the regular GTAB Board meeting to order
on Friday, November 10, 2017, at 10:01 AM.
Georgetown Transportation Advisory Board may, at any time, recess the Regular Session to
Convene an Executive Session at the request of the Chair, a Board Member, The City Manager,
Assistant City Manager, General Manager of Utilities, City Council Member, or legal counsel for
any purpose authorized by the Open Meetings Act, Texas Government Code Chapter 551, and
are subject to action in the Regular Session that follows.
B. Introduction of Visitors: All visitors were introduced.
Citizens Wishing to Address the Board: Wendy Dew and Dennis Hegebarth signed up to
speak to the board. Mr. Hegebarth deferred his 3 minutes to Ms. Dew, who spoke to the
Board.
NOTE: Ms Dew's statement to the Board is included at the end of these minutes.
C. Airport Monthly Update - Russ Volk, C.M., Airport Manager
Volk gave updates. Babin gave additional update related to airport projects. There were
a couple of questions from Mr. Hellmann and Mr. Hesser - which Babin, Diaz and
Briggs answered.
D. Industry/CAMPO/TxDOT Updates: Polasek - one brief update - project call for
category 2 7 9? LISTEN
E. November 2017 GTAB Updates - Wesley Wright, P.E., Systems Engineering
Director/Michael Hallmark, CIP Manager - Wright LISTEN Hesser lots of
complements on downtown. Williams Drive - signal change - can travel without
stopping now. Couple of areas on Williams Drive- more accidents - what are the next
steps for that. Wright - Octavio will address - accidents we will reach out and talk to PD
- not aware of additional accidents. Briggs - operations will look at any additional
accidents. Garza answered the next steps for Williams drive.
Legislative Regular Agenda
F. Review and possible action to approve the minutes from the Regular GTAB Board
meeting held on October 13, 2017 - Laura Wilkins - GTAB Board Liaison - Motion by
Hellman, second by Hesser to approve minutes with changes requested. APPROVED
6-0 (Johnston, Courtney and Marler absent)
G. Consideration and possible action to confirm the December GTAB meeting date. -- Jim
Briggs, General Manager of Utility Operations - Motion by Allen, second by Hellmann
to approve confirmation of the GTAB Board Meeting for Friday, December 8, 2017 at
10:00 AM. - APPROVED 6-0 (Johnston, Courtney and Marler absent)
H. Consideration and possible recommendation to award a contract to Patin
Construction,
LLC of Taylor, Texas for the construction of the 2017 CDBG Scenic Drive Sidewalk
project in the amount of $140,902.00 - Wesley Wright, P.E., Systems Engineering
Director/Michael Hallmark, CIP Manager. Wright explained the project. Motion by
Noble, second by Hesser to recommend award of a contract to Patin Construction for the
construction of the 2017 CDBG Scenic Drive Sidewalk project in the amount of
$140,902.00. - APPROVED 6-0 (Johnston, Courtney and Marler absent)
I Consideration and recommendation on a change order to MA Smith Contracting
Company, Inc in the amount of $118,805.00 for Citywide Sidewalk Improvements --
Wesley Wright, P.E., Systems Engineering Director. Wright explained the project.
Motion by Hellmann, second by Hesser to recommend award of a contract to MA Smith
Contracting Company, Inc. in the amount of $118,805.00 for Citywide Sidewalk
Improvements. - APPROVED 6-0 (Johnston, Courtney and Marler absent)
J Consideration and possible recommendation to approve a professional services
agreement, with Atrium Real Estate Services to provide real property appraisal services,
in the amount of $51,500.00, on the Northwest Boulevard Project. -Travis Baird, Real
Estate Services Coordinator Baird explained the item. Several questions. Hellmann
asked about possible conflict of interest. Represents one of those parcels - asked if he
should recuse himself on the vote. Answered by Baird this is just to secure the
professional services and would not impact any of those discussions. Wright stated we
are just gathering values at this time and making no offers to property owners. It was
determined that there would be no conflict on this particular item. Discussion and
various questions - answered by Baird, Wright and Briggs.
Motion by Mills, second by Hesser to recommend approval of a professional services
agreement with Atrium Real Estate Services to provide real property appraisal services
in the amount of $51,500.00 for the Northwest Boulevard Project. - APPROVED 6-0
(Johnston, Courtney and Marler absent)
Adjournment
Motion by Mills, second by Hellmann to adjourn the meeting. APPROVED 6-0 (Johnston,
Courtney and Marler absent).
Meeting adjourned at .10:59 AM.
Proved: Attested:
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ve Johnst - Chair Ron Bin�as - Secretary
Laura Wilkins - GTAB Board Liaison
Georgetown Transportation Advisory Board (GTAB)
Friday, November 10, 2017
Good morning members of the Georgetown Transportation Advisory Board, city staff and ladies
and gentlemen. My name is Wendy Dew. My address is 30109 Spyglass Circle, Georgetown,
TX 78628. I am a member of the Airport Concerned Citizens (ACC). This is the 75th statement
before the city council and/or the GTAB on behalf of the ACC since January 14, 2014
demanding compliance with the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) by preparation of
Environmental Impact Statements (EIS's) for state and federal grants for the airport. My
comments this morning address the new Airport Master Plan Update by Coffman Associates.
The Airport Manager advises that the 4th meeting of the Planning Advisory Committee (PAC)
and 3rd meeting of the Public Information Workshop for the new master plan are scheduled for
next Thursday, November 16, 2017. As usual the general public has been kept in the dark about
these meetings and contents of this new plan and has no idea of what is being planned by the
city, TxDOT and FAA to heap more harmful health, safety and human environmental misery on
their lives. Neither the city nor the local press have informed the public about the expansion
history of the airport's annual aviation operations from 31,550 in 1980 to 133,400 with 764 per
peak day planned by Coffman Associates and its continuing planned dangerous development as a
reliever airport for the Central Texas region in the heart of our city and atop the Edwards
Recharge Zone.
All the public ever hears from the city is the lie, "No expansion is going on at the airport -never
has - never will!" That lie never stops despite multimillions of dollars of taxpayer grants to
expand airport operations and property acreage. The press never investigates the lie. City and
state officials continued the lie to the Texas Transportation Commission on January 28, 2016.
Even now as I am communicating with a high level official of the FAA who bought into the lie,
that official stated "The airport is not undergoing expansion at this time." By not providing a
truthful background for the airport's grant history and public objections, the new plan perpetuates
the lie and its usefulness as a plan.
This new airport master plan is hopelessly defective and should be a total embarrassment to the
city, TxDOT and FAA. Preparation of an EIS for its capital improvement program is mandatory.
Our fears identified in our email dated November 14, 2016 to you and the city council that the
PAC would ignore adverse public health, safety and human environment concerns and objections
regarding expanded development of the airport have been confirmed. The new plan totally
ignores these public concerns.
The new plan totally ignores mitigation measures to reduce harmful impacts of continued airport
expansion. Among such measures are: (1) shortening the runways to reduce numbers of
heavier, more dangerous aircraft and pull back the crash and explosion runway protection zones
from enveloping homes, neighborhood streets and major city roadways, (2) new flight rules to
eliminate low level, dangerous turning maneuvers by reckless pilots over the designated "safety
and noise sensitive areas", (3) creation of a city staff empowered to inspect and enforce
hazardous materials assembly, storage, handling, use, containment, clean up and disposal over
the Edwards Recharge Zone, (4) Erection of noise baffling walls around the airport, (5)
construction of earthen berms around the airport to protect private properties from crashes and
explosions, (6) city use of federal grants to soundproof private properties.
Another serious egregious defect in the plan is ignoring the most practicable alternative for
relocation of the airport to a superior, rural, protected site with runways and facilities to totally
serve the Central Texas reliever airport needs. The ACC has provided numerous presentations
on the need for a feasibility study showing how this transformation could be attained. The
current plan instead focuses on a nonsense narrative and cost estimate that has no justification.
We don't know if the $321 Million cost is for an airport built at Prudhoe Bay, Alaska or a
malaria drenched swamp in Brazil. We do know that an equivalent airport in Utah was built for
about half that amount. We also know there is a state law requiring TxDOT to build and
maintain a regional airport to serve the needs for Central Texas, the airport property is worth in
excess of $100 Million, property owners at a selected site could participate in land development
for fixed base operators, and ad valorem and sales taxes from a developed GTU site would flow
to the city in perpetuity.
Mr. Chairman, we demand preparation of an EIS for the new capital improvements program
proposed by this plan before that program is broken up into smaller units and individually
categorically excluded from NEPA by TxDOT.